sfaJack

Anybody heard anything in regards to Greg Maddux? I've seen/heard nothing since the Cubs' reported offer to him, so unless I really missed something, which team is he supposed to be leaning towards?

Man, if you only knew the half of it. My dad used to work for the DEA, and they'd often work with HPD. Some of the stories he can tell of their incompetence make you almost feel uneasy about hanging out in Houston at any time during the day.

If you have a Gateway, you should have some system restore disks they gave you with your machine. Run those; they should reinstall/"repair" Windows, while giving you the option to maintain all your files and settings. I've done it more than a couple times on my own machine and solved every problem I've had.

Yeah, that sucks and all, but you are aware that all banks do the same thing when it comes to cleaing transactions through your account, right? Whether you use checks or debit cards, if there is more than one transaction hitting your account in a day, the bank will always clear the largest amount first, just so they can hit you with more fees, just like Wachovia did to your girlfriend. I don't blame them for it, either, because quite frankly it's a smart move on their part. A bit on the "asshole" side of things, but smart. They're not "criminals and thieves" or "stealing" money from you, nor is their any "creative accounting" going on here. They're a business that exists to make money, and by doing this they make more money. This practice, while pretty sneaky and underhanded, is legal. I'd do the same thing if I owned a bank, too. My advice to you and your girlfriend next time would be to not spend more than $20 when you have only $20 in your account. You avoid the whole problem then. How much of what she spent was actually necessary? Oh, and shouldn't this be in GC?

And I heard today that Hef's not even gonna show up to his own party. I don't know if it's 100% true or not since I just heard the end of a really quick newsbit about it, but that's disappointing if it is true. Either way, I think I'll pass on all this A-list crap. The parties are nice, sure, but $200 just to get in the door is way more than I'd care to spend. The free 4-day bash downtown should be more than sufficient, and with the temporary licenses being issued, you can buy booze out on the streets. I don't know if I'll make it down for any of the parties, but I'm probably going to the NFL Experience at GRB on Friday.

Why the hell is his wife named Turquoise? I mean, seriously...Turquoise? Did I miss something here, or isn't that a color? And $8,000 a MONTH for credit cards?? The hell? She needs to get a job.

I was visible during the Rockets/76ers game on Dec. 31, so I'm told. I was sitting third-row courtside, across from the team benches. My dad told me he had serveral great views of the backs of our heads. My sophomore year of high school, there was this guy Charlie in my class who competed in the calf scramble at the Houston Rodeo. Well, Charlie ended up getting slammed against the wall by one of the calves and got knocked out. One of the news stations aired an interview with him afterwards where he said, "Yeah, I remember he hit me and the bam! I was out." It was hilarious. That one was topped by an incident my freshman year of high school. Pink Floyd played Houston one night; this guy Shawn, who was in my geometry class, skipped school the day of the show so he could go. He even brought a note the next day from his "doctor" to confirm that he was sick. Only problem with that was, Shawn allowed himself to be interviewed by Channel 2 at the concert...and our principal saw his little 15 second cameo, along with a few other teachers. He got suspended for two days.

Aren't you engaged?

Maybe I'm not talking to the right people or something, but I've yet to run across anyone who thinks that what she did was right. Not a soul. Nobody that I know thinks that she should have been allowed to get away with that, and it's a joke that they were able to get it annulled so quickly and painlessly. What exactly is the point of bringing up the Britney thing? Nobody except her stupid fans think it was "cute" or "right." I fail to see how it supports your argument.

Praised for what? Blitzing the piss out of the other team every other play? That doesn't take a whole lot of genius to do...

Good lord. Just when I thought ESPN couldn't get more ridiculous, they have to go and prove me wrong.

Correct. So? What point does that make? Mike, I respect your opinions in CE, but you proabably should stick to that folder until you know a little more of what you're talking about. Only 11 teams drew less than 2,000,000 million fans in 2003. Football fans may be more "rabid" (i.e. drunk), but I guarantee they wouldn't average 60,000 a game if they played 81 games a year either.

ABC's potential strategy of fewer commercials sounds like a winner to me. I wish they'd all do that.

You're right - it is a marketing tool, and it's a damned good one, too. There aren't too many fans who have neutral feelings about the Cowboys. Most people either think it's great or it's completely arrogant and cheer/boo accordingly. You must be one of the exceptions. Right, who WOULD have thought the Panthers would be in the Super Bowl? And how many people actually give a shit? The Panthers are an average team playing in a league full of them. Put them against most any other Super Bowl winner from the '90s and they'd probably get destroyed. There isn't much to get excited about. With dynasty teams like the Cowboys or Niners, people have more interest, plain and simple. The general opinions expressed in this thread seem to disagree with your stance as well. Hmmm...let's see. A "close" game doesn't always mean a "good" game. Green Bay/Philly - ugly game; neither team played all that well, and both did their best to give the game away before the Pack was successful in doing so. Carolina/St. Louis - even uglier game. The repeated ineptitude in the overtime by both teams was a big black eye. Indy/Kansas City - NO defense of any sort. If you like seeing 38-31 games, well, more power to you, but just once I'd like to see someone show up and make ANY sort of defensive play. And that game wasn't as close as the score would indicate. Without the Hall kickoff return, the Chiefs pretty much get blown out. Tennessee/NE - I'll give you this one. It was a great game. Shit, this weekend's games weren't all that great. The Colts generally played like crap, and the Patriots made way too many mistakes to count it as a "great" win. Carolina/Philly was awful; enough said.

I read this, too. Certainly an interesting scenario, though somehow I doubt it'd be allowed under the current rules. Personally, I hope Pudge gets stuck with the Tigers. I hope he enjoys his 90+ loss seasons, and I hope he never sniffs the playoffs again. His refusing the Marlins' very reasonable offer to come back and defend the title is a joke.

How long have you been an Eagles' fan, exactly? And why did you pick the Eagles? Seems odd for an Oklahoma guy.

Well at least Philly fans won't be invading Houston now. The Pats fans will be bad enough...we didn't need the Eagle fans, too.

Pam Oliver is useless. I'm not surprised.

Alright TSM Eagle fans, time to take your medicine. Let's hear from you. I'm looking at you, Sledgehammer, most notably.

I think the refs owe Ricky Manning an apology for that "holding" call. Christ.

This is exactly what I'm talking about. The "America's Team" thing is what makes the Cowboys great. You either love them or hate them; there is no middle ground. You either watch to see them win, or you watch to see them lose. And how is that a good thing? How is it good that the defending champion doesn't get back to the playoffs the next year? I hate to use a wrestling analogy, but I will. WWE is the most popular wrestling federation in the world. I think it's safe to say that it's currently in a bad era. Popularity of a sport has nothing to do with how good/bad an era it's in....

Listening to the little nancy-boy Collinsworth whine about the Eagles not getting the ball at the 20 is putting a smile on my face. His Eagles are dying before his eyes, and I don't think he knows how to deal with it.

Salary cap took effect in the NFL in 1994, I believe. And, no, it's not much better since it started. You could make a case that's it's worse, actually. Players change teams too often now, and the overall quality of play has slipped, in my opinion. You don't follow those sports too closely, do you? MLB has been fighting over the cap issue for years; it's probably never gonna happen, and I'm not sure it should. Having teams like the Yankees that "buy" everyone is ok, and makes for some great drama when they get beat. Having such teams creates very rigid love/hate lines towards those teams. I know several people, me among them, who get overjoyed every time the Yankees or Braves or whoever get taken down. It's great. The NFL used to have that. Being a Cowboys' fan in the early-mid '90s was great; watching everyone get all bent out of shape when they won was priceless. Every time a team like that was involved in the championship, every football fan in the country was into the game emotionally, whether to see them win or to hope they lose. The level of interest on the whole was simply higher. The NFL doesn't have that anymore. Outside the northeast and the two dozen Panther fans in Carolina, who is going to get excited about a Patriots/Panthers Super Bowl? The NBA has some rules for something pertaining to a salary cap, but they don't seem to enforce them. It's ridiculously soft.

Alright, Panthers. It's time to live up to your end of the deal. You beat my Cowboys in the playoffs....the least you can do for us is keep the fucking Eagles out of the Super Bowl.

Whoa! Why didn't Brady just FALL DOWN there? Even if this is overturned and NE keeps the ball, it's still a terrible play.